Chair says abuse of children under 4 has increased by 45% and recommends registration of care workers
LONDON—The UK government should introduce a system to register all staff working in care homes and appoint a cabinet-level children’s minister, the UK government’s final report says. Independent Research into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).
Professor Alexis Jay, who chaired the seven-year study, said: “For too long, child sexual abuse has been viewed as a problem of the past, despite its lifelong impact on the victim.
“Child sexual abuse is an epidemic that leaves tens of thousands of victims with its toxic aftereffects, some never recovering,” she said.
Jay, who released the IICSA report on Thursday, said: The number of sex abuse crimes recorded by police where the victim is a child under the age of four has increased by 45% in recent years. “
IICSA was set up by then Home Secretary Theresa May in 2015 to examine “the extent to which institutions in England and Wales, including the police, the NHS and the BBC, have failed in their duty of care to protect”. Children from sexual abuse and exploitation. “
It followed the emergence of a string of allegations of child abuse in 2012 by celebrities including TV host Jimmy Saville and a former member of Congress. Cyril Smith and Greville Janner.
The Crown Attorney’s Office decided to drop charges against Smith in 1970, 1998 and 1999. Smith was knighted in 1988 and died in 2010 at the age of 82.
In 2014, Janner, who was knighted in 1997, was charged with 22 crimes against children between the 1960s and 1980s, but died in December 2015 without ever being tried. His son Daniel later described the investigation as “a witch hunt for dead politicians”.
In October 2021, IICSA concluded that the complaint against Janner “was not properly investigated by Leicestershire Police”, but did not rule on whether he was guilty of ill-treatment.
The final report, which incorporates all 19 elements of the study, “shows the devastating scale of child sexual abuse” and presents “horrifying pictures that support the study’s recommendations.”
The 107 recommendations included in the report are:
- Establish a Child Protection Agency in England and a separate Child Protection Agency in Wales to inspect orphanages and other institutions.
- The UK Government to create a Cabinet-level Children’s Minister.
- A single database of pedophiles should be created in England and Wales.
- The government should ban all “pain-relieving techniques” for detained children.
- All staff performing care roles in an orphanage should be registered and may be dismissed if convicted of misconduct by an independent agency.
- Official records of allegations of child sexual abuse should be maintained for 75 years.
- Introduce a “compulsory reporting” system.
The report also recommends changes to the criminal injury compensation system, stating that victims with a criminal record are more likely to have their crimes related to sexual abuse they experienced as children. , states that it should not be automatically excluded.
Convicted offenders can be entitled to compensation for child abuse
If the government agrees to the recommendations, it could mean receiving compensation for child abuse suffered by convicted murderers.
IICSA also issued a statement to the Metropolitan Police following the discovery of a boy known as LA-A2 dead in a Shirley Oakes toilet: I asked him to consider what to do. 1977 care home.
The council did not notify the coroner that LA-A2 allegedly suffered abuse from care worker Donald Horsegood, who died in 2011.
In 2018, the lead attorney for the investigation, KC’s Brian Altman, said the final report could not determine whether the allegations against Westminster officials were true, later stating that some were already false. He said that it has been shown that
July 2019 Carl Buna— A visionary whose allegations about a murderous VIP pedophile ring centered around Dolphin Square in central London led to Operation Midland, a massive and ultimately fruitless police investigation, was jailed for 18 years. I was.
However, Jay clarified that IICSA’s role is not to determine the guilt or innocence of individual perpetrators, but to comment on the authorities’ response and suggest ways to improve this in the future.
According to the report, 1 in 6 girls and 1 in 20 boys have been sexually abused before the age of 16, Jay said.
she said: “If much of what we have learned suggests that it is a problem that will continue to be exacerbated by the current and future threats of the Internet, as a society, we will file it and view it as a historical deviation.” I can not do it.”
Millions of child sexual abuse images ‘in 3 clicks’
According to the IICSA report, “Millions of child sexual abuse images are accessible with just three clicks, many of which depict young children and babies.”
Jay says: This could be live streamed on some site by a predator who can direct the abuse he wants to see for a pittance. “
“The UK government needs to change legislation to ensure internet companies that offer online internet services and social media have better ways to verify the age of children,” the report said. .
The recommendation comes just a week after the coroner at the Molly Russell inquest suggested separate social media platforms for children and adults.
Molly Russell, a 14-year-old girl from Harrow, north-west London, committed suicide on November 21, 2017, months before her death after viewing online content related to depression and self-harm.
Earlier this year, Jay said there was a “false assumption that child sexual exploitation was declining.”
More than 7,000 child sexual abuse survivors involved in IICSA and 700 gave evidence or made statements at public hearings.
One of them, Holly, said, “I can say that I’m finally getting my voice heard. If I hadn’t been a victim of child abuse, I could grieve for someone I might have been.” I will.”
New Home Secretary Grant Shaps said the government would respond fully within six months, but he added: I can not forget. “
Shaps also said: I will protect children, improve law enforcement and criminal justice responses, provide victims and survivors the help they deserve, and hold all agencies and leaders to account. use all available means to
“To this day, we have taken action to confront this abhorrent crime and learn from the lessons of the past, but I know there is still much more to be done. It’s the beginning of a new chapter in our effort to put an end to it,” Shapps said.
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Chris Summers is a UK-based journalist with a wide range of national coverage, with a particular interest in crime, police and law.